City of San Diego · Statewide General Election
San Diego City Council, District 8
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.
On the ballot
- Gerardo Ramirez — Chief of Staff, District 8
- Antonio Martinez — Governing Board Member, San Ysidro School District
This person holds your district's seat on San Diego's 9-member City Council: city laws, the budget, and land use.
Antonio Martinez and Gerardo Ramirez advanced from a four-Democrat June field for an open South Bay seat — Southcrest, Sherman Heights, San Ysidro, the border-adjacent district KPBS describes as facing unresolved January 2024 flood damage and cross-border sewage pollution (per KPBS and the city clerk's roster).
The winner holds one of nine seats on the San Diego City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and the land-use decisions behind the district's biggest fights. A four-year term.
Both finalists are Democrats, so the choice is not partisan but positional: a school-board member running on infrastructure investment versus the district office's own chief of staff running on continuity. The district's crises — flood recovery, the Tijuana River pollution emergency, a legacy of underinvestment (per KPBS) — will consume whoever wins.
Antonio Martinez
A San Ysidro School District board member and former congressional staffer. His campaign stresses infrastructure investment after the January 2024 floods; he raised about $10,000 in the primary (per KPBS).
Strengths
The field's only elected-office record — a school board seat in the district's own southern communities — plus federal staff experience.
Trade-offs
The smallest reported primary fundraising among the leading candidates (per KPBS), against an opponent with the district office's network.
Keep in mind
School-board governance is real but small-scale; the council seat's flood-and-pollution portfolio is a different order of complexity.
Gerardo Ramirez
The sitting District 8 chief of staff. KPBS's explainer noted little public platform detail from his campaign; his primary raised about $21,000, and an independent committee funded by SDG&E and Phillips 66 spent roughly $100,000 more in the race — money that is not his campaign's (per KPBS).
Strengths
Day-one command of the district office's active files — he runs the office now — in a seat where continuity has real value mid-crisis.
Trade-offs
KPBS found little stated platform to evaluate; voters are asked to infer his agenda from the office he staffs.
Keep in mind
The roughly $100,000 in independent utility- and oil-funded spending that supported his primary (per KPBS) is not his money and not his doing — but whom it chose to help is information.
Source review: Very strong (95/100) · 2 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with a narrow source base.
- sandiego.gov (opens in a new tab)San Diego City Clerk — 2026 election information (November runoff rosters)
- kpbs.org (opens in a new tab)KPBS — San Diego City Council races explainer, Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 (Apr 30, 2026)
Last updated August 22, 2026.